CNN suspends journalist for her tweet in support of Syrian refugees

Washington: CNN has suspended its global affairs correspondent Elise Labott for two weeks after she expressed her displeasure on Twitter about the US House of Representatives voting on a bill that would make it harder for Syrian and Iraqi refugees to enter the US.

Her tweet garnered over 5,000 tweets and about 7,000 likes. She was suspended on the same day.

The US House lawmakers voted Thursday to halt a program aimed at resettling thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing their homeland that is facing a civil war and battle between the ISIS and other world powers, including Russia and the United States.

“In light of the Paris attacks, we are certainly mindful that there are certain members of Congress that want to take another look at this,” State spokesman John Kirby said, adding, “We’re aware of some potential legislation coming. We’re going to continue to work with members of Congress on that, and any other concern they have.”

After Labott drew flak on Twitter for her comments, she apologized for her “inappropriate and disrespectful tweet”.

Everyone, It was wrong of me to editorialize. My tweet was inappropriate and disrespectful. I sincerely apologize.

The dome of the U.S. Capitol is seen beyond a chain fence during the partial government shutdown in Washington, Jan. 8, 2019. VOA

By Vishvi Gupta

The partial shutdown of the Government of the United States has now entered Day 31. With as many as 800,000 federal employees furloughed, the entire nation remains in a turmoil due to the longest government shutdown in the history of United States.

The shutdown which started on December 22 of 2018, due to the disagreement of United States Congress and the President Of United States on ‘Border Security Funding’ has followed us well into 2019 and still has bleak chances of ending.

President Donald Trump remains undeterred in his conquest to get the funding for wall, no matter who pays for it, it seems. In a tweet and several different speeches, during the presidential election race of 2016, the then presidential candidate Donald Trump promised that “Mexico will pay for the wall”. However, he now demands almost $5Bn from the taxpayers of the country.

The country’s senate remains at an impasse and the only ones affected? The people.

Thousands of federal employees joined hands in protests and social media to share their stories of how exactly the shutdown is affecting them. Many employees have had to set up Gofundme donation websites to get by or to meet their basic needs. The shutdown led the hastag, ‘#ShutdownStories’ trend on twitter. Even students who rely on free or reduced fee meals at school are impacted. The lunch menus at schools are being revised so as to conserve food and funding.

As the shutdown drags on, it sees many businesses also take a hit. Mohammad Badah, a local falafel street vendors who saw a steep fall in his sales said,” Usually I do in this area, like 60-70 customers, so far I did like 19 customers today.” Badah can now afford to operate only one of his two trucks.

Meanwhile, there is no budging on the democratic or republican side. President Donald Trump proposed a deal to the democrats in which he backs away from a simple demand for border funding and now offers a 3 year extension of the program for refugees and immigrants who came to America illegally as minors, also called ‘Dreamers.’ Democrats, however rejected this deal saying that Donald Trump’s proposal is “unacceptable” and said the president’s proposal was “not a good-faith effort.”